Whether or not one may wish to attribute the fact to altered business conditions, there can be no doubt that the motion picture industry has recently been turning more and more to that style of film whose production, it would seem, must be comparatively low in cost. Such films have been ones in which melodramatic force and not pictorial beauty have produced the chief effects and in which backgrounds of easily constructed type might be utilized in preference to scenes where costly mobs of extras parade through unusual sets and high-priced properties.

Horror films, plots with newspaper or gangster settings have undoubtedly fulfilled the wishes of the movie going public, but they have also fitted in happily with the producers' campaign to cut costs. "Frankenstein", "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," and "Murders in the Rue Morgue," the latter opening at the R.K.O. Keith today, constitute a trio of carefully contrived hair-raisers. A survey of other current titles reveals additional evidence that melodrama and the effects of the spoken word are being capitalized.

Former silent pictures which were money makers in their day are being retaken and an unusual number have come into being recently. In addition to "Daddy Longlegs," and "Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," at least four other old productions are coming out again. They are "The Miracle Man," the show which brought stardom to Thomas Meighan, Rence Adores, and Lon Chaney; "Fireman Save My Child," formerly a Beery-Hatton vehicle; "Smilin' Through," in which Norma Shearer will do the part once taken by Norma Talmadge; and "The Man Who Played God," a story about a musician who becomes deal and learns to read lips which George Arliss will star in again as he did almost ten years ago.

While "epics" to compare with such pictures as "The Big Parade," "The Covered Wagon," "The Thief of Bagdad," "Ben-Bur," and other monstrous productions will probably not be attempted for the present, the moviegoer is still justified in anticipating some excellent programs in the future.